d the foreman, preparing to ride down to the
corral.

"Lucky the boy broke the fellow's gun as he did," said Captain Rugley,
thoughtfully, turning to his daughter. "Otherwise some of us might have
been popped off from the bushes."

"Oh, Daddy!"

"When a man's as mean as that scalawag," said her father,
philosophically, "there's no knowing to what lengths he will go. I
shan't feel that you are safe on the ranges until he's found and
jailed."

"And I shan't feel that we're out of trouble until your friend Mr.
Lonergan comes here and you divide and get rid of that silly old
treasure," declared Frances, and she pouted a little.

"What's that, Frances?" gasped the old Captain. "All those jewels and
stuff? Why, don't you care anything for them?"

"I care more for my peace of mind," she said, decidedly. "And see what
it's brought poor Pratt to."

"Well," said her father, subsiding. "The boy did git the dirty end of
the stick, for a fact. I'm sorry he was hurt----"

"And you are sorry you thought so ill of him, too, Daddy--you know you
are," whispered Frances, one arm stealing over the Captain's shoulder.

"Well----"

"Now, ''fessup!'" she laughed, softly. "He's a good boy to risk himself
for me."

"I wouldn't have thought much of him if he hadn't," said the old
ranchman, stubbornly.

"What could you really expect when you consider that he has lived all
his life in a city----"

"And works in a bank," finished the Captain, with a sly grin. "But I
reckon I have got to take off my hat to him. He's a hero."

"He is a good boy," Frances said, cheerfully. "And I hope that he will
recover all right, as the doctor says he will."

"I don't know how fast he'll mend," chuckled the Captain. "If I were he,
and getting the attention he is----"

"From whom?" demanded Frances, turning on him sharply.

"From Ming, of course," responded her father, soberly, but with his eyes
a-twinkle.

And then Frances fled upstairs again, her cheeks burning as she heard
the old ranchman's mellow laughter.

Pratt lay on his bed with his head swathed in bandages and his shoulder
in a brace. He had suffered a dislocation as well as the bruises and the
cut in his head. From the time he had been struck from behind by the
man, Pete, the young fellow had known nothing at all until he awoke to
find himself stretched upon this bed in the Bar-T ranch-house.

The old Captain, with Ming's help, had disrobed Pratt and put him to
bed; but when th